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December 20, 2008
SouthAmerica: I understand why South American countries are giving the United States this kind of treatment â among other things it is a response and natural reaction as these countries started recognizing that the stature and power of the United States is collapsing around the world.
Basically it is just a form of retribution and also reflects the loss of prestige and influence of the United States in many areas around the world including South America.
I have had first hand experience about how Americas feel about Brazil and after evaluating its options a few years ago Brazil decided to adjust accordingly and find new markets - and for a number of years now the Brazilians have been moving forward into the future and for Brazil the future means a close relationship with countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, India, and many other countries.
I wrote about it on this forum over 3 years ago on 06-12-05 about my long experience in watching Brazil slowly disconnecting from the United States and I also mentioned my experience here in the United States in trying to create a center for Brazilian history and economics studies â but as usual Americans preferred to stay in the dark and completely clueless about what is going on even close to home on their backyard. Here is the link to that posting:
06-12-05 SouthAmerica: Here is the new reality in United States and Brazilian international relations. "Basically, the United States is becoming irrelevant from the Brazilian perspective." Here is my latest article regarding this subject. The article was also published on various newspapers around the world....
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...&highlight=Brazil+Cultural+Society#post767065
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âAt Meeting in Brazil, Washington Is Scornedâ
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: December 16, 2008
The New York Times
SAUÃPE, Brazil â Latin American leaders took another step away from the decades-old orbit of the United States at a meeting here that brought together nearly all of Latin America and the Caribbean, but excluded the United States and Europe.
And in the process of convening the leaders of 31 countries, Brazil once again flashed its credentials as the undisputed leader of Latin America.
But the host countryâs highly popular president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, an ally of the United States, did not prevent the leaders from celebrating the inclusion of Raúl Castro, Cubaâs president, and from using the occasion to attack the United States and Europe for their roles in causing the global economic crisis that is roiling this region as well.
âCuba is returning to where it always should have been,â Hugo Chávez, Venezuelaâs president, told reporters. âWe are complete.â
The United States became a punching bag at the three-day conference, which ends Wednesday, in this tourist haven in Brazilâs Bahia State. Mr. Castro was hardly alone in assailing the United States and what he called its âneo-liberalistâ model for the credit crisis, which is affecting many other economies.
âIn the middle of an unprecedented global crisis, our countries are discovering that they arenât part of the problem,â Mr. da Silva said. âThey can and should be fundamental players in the solution.â
The timing of the meeting, just four months before the next Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, was significant, analysts said. That meeting, first convened in Miami in 1994 at the urging of President Clinton, will include the United States and Canada but will exclude Cuba.
Mr. da Silva did his part to upstage the Summit of the Americas, even sending planes from Brazilâs air force to ensure the presence here of presidents from poorer countries in Central America and the Caribbean. President Alan GarcÃa of Peru and President Ãlvaro Uribe of Colombia were the only heads of state who did not attend. Vice President Francisco Santos of Colombia said that Mr. Uribe, a staunch American ally, stayed home to cope with the aftermath of deadly floods.
The meeting drew together diverse coalitions of the regionâs countries, including the recently formed Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, a grouping that has held meetings in recent months that also excluded the United States.
âThere is no question that this is about exclusion, about excluding the United States,â said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy research group in Washington. âBrazil is demonstrating its enormous convening power.â
With the rise of China as a principal export destination and the visit last month by President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia to court Latin American leaders, there are more frequent reminders that the United States is becoming an ever more distant player in the affairs of the region, said Riordan Roett, the director of the Latin American Studies program at Johns Hopkins University.
âThe United States is no longer, and will not be ever again, the major interlocutor for the countries in the region,â he said.
One by one, the presidents saluted the inclusion of Cuba in the meeting, an expression that indicated a frustration with the efforts by the United States to exclude Cuba from similar hemispheric deliberations, said Michael Shifter, the vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue.
Many of the leaders, including Mr. da Silva, called for lifting the United States embargo of Cuba. âThis is a further step in the process of ensuring that Cuba occupies its rightful place of dignity in the region and throughout the world,â said Bruce Golding, the prime minister of Jamaica.
But even as the Latin American leaders spoke of their collective power and growing unity, regional strains have been evident.
In Bolivia, Oscar OrtÃz, the president of the Senate and a prominent critic of President Evo Morales, called on Unasur, the new regional body, to investigate further recent killings in northern Bolivia, which a Unasur commission described unequivocally as a massacre.
The regionâs leaders continue to struggle to pick a leader for Unasur. Tabaré Vásquez, Uruguayâs president, said in October that he would oppose the nomination of former President Néstor Kirchner of Argentina, a stance that reflects the tense relations between the countries in the past year.
Tension has also been increasing between Ecuador and Brazil, with President Rafael Correa of Ecuador expelling executives from Odebrecht, a major Brazilian construction company, and disputing a loan by Brazilâs powerful national development bank, which finances public works projects throughout Latin America.
But these disputes may have more to do with Brazilâs rising regional profile as its multinational corporations compete more aggressively for business beyond Brazilâs borders. In Mr. da Silva, Brazil has a leader who has been adept at relieving tension through diplomacy, even as Washingtonâs diplomacy has become largely inoperative in much of the region.
âLula is a leader who practices the politics of the bear hug, by thinking all problems can be solved by a warm embrace,â said Larry Birns, director of the Council of Hemispheric Affairs, a research group based in Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/world/americas/17latin.html?ref=americas
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